Gender Typing and Social Desirability of Personality in Person Evaluation

Abstract

In order to test the hypothesis that persons with gender-appropriate, as compared with gender-inappropriate, traits are evaluated more favorably, a person perception task was designed. Subjects (n = 211) rated written descriptions of males and females who were said to possess either masculine or feminine personality characteristics, which, in turn, were either socially desirable or undesirable. Contrary to hypothesis, gender appropriateness had no significant effects on evaluation. Instead, ratings were strongly influenced by the gender typing of characteristics. Whether masculinity or femininity resulted in more positive evaluations was a function of the kind of evaluation made. Masculine stimulus persons received higher evaluations on ratings of “adjustment” and “competence and likelihood of achieving future success.” Feminine persons were rated more positively on measures of “interpersonal functioning.”